The Brothers De Winkle.

Last weekend (as in more than a week ago, not yesterday and the day before). I met Nate in Krakow. We both took sleeper trains - him from Prague, and me from Budapest. Conveniently, our trains arrived at the same time, that is we ran into each other whilst exiting the train station. Then we walked to the hostel, showered and ate breakfast. We started our sightseeing with a trip to the Wieliczka Salt Mine. You may think it is just a big hole in the ground, but it is so much more. Over the centuries, especially those before electronic entertainment, the miners occupied their free time by carving statues out of salt, which now litter the mine. It turns out that raw rock salt is has strength similar to that of marble. The statues are amazing, especially considering they were made by amateurs. There are also rooms that have been carved out. The most impressive of these is St. Kinga's Chapel. This massive chapel was carved out by three miners over the course of 67 years and includes many reliefs carved out of salt (including a reproduction of da Vinci's "Last Supper").

Emerging from our subterranean adventure, we took a long bus ride back to the city center. After exploring the square, we found a cheap, but good "milk bar" for lunch. During the Communist era, "milk bars" were set up as government subsidized eateries to provide cheap food for the populace. Some have survived and still serve cheap food. We putzed around the old town for a while, returned to the hostel for Nate to clean up (he hadn't earlier), and then headed to a concert at the Academy of Music. It turned out to be a sort of student recital, but it was still very good, featuring works from a Polish composer. Afterwards we headed back to the main square and enjoyed a couple of drinks underneath the clock tower. I called it a fairly early night, but Nate decided to go out with a couple of Irish guys from the hostel.

The next morning, while I was waiting for Nate to recover, I decided to walk to the castle. It is a very nice castle - not as nice as Prague, but still impressive. It seemed that all the old, important buildings in Krakow (the castle included) were built of brick instead of stone (as they had been in every other city I have visited), which gave Krakow a much different feel than other cities. Nate was able to mobilize sometime before I got back to the hostel around 11. Then we made a trip to Auschwitz.

Really all I can say about Auschwitz is that it is a powerful experience. Our tour guide was very knowledgeable, and I liked the style in which he led the tour. It would have been easy to be pulling on our heartstrings the entire time. Instead he simply presented the facts and let the site speak for itself - and trust me, it does that very well. Certainly this is not a fun experience, but still very much worth while.

After returning to Krakow and getting dinner, I had to hit the books. The next day, we decided to explore the Jewish quarter. Unfortunately Schindler's factory was closed, so we couldn't see that. Then we took a bus back to Budapest. Our bus left an hour late, but our driver must have been amazing because we still made it back on schedule. Nate spent that night in my apartment, but then spent the rest of his time staying in a hostel for two fold reasons. First, a hostel let him meet people and hang out with others while I was busy being studious. Second, the pragmatic reason that when two brothers occupy one room for several days, it does not usually end well for one or both of the brothers. We went to lunch on Tuesday, but then I didn't see him until Thursday.

My schedule allowed me to spend most of the day with Nate on Thursday. We went to lunch at a great local Hungarian restaurant recommended by my Hungarian instructor. Then we spent the afternoon at Széchenyi Baths. Both Nate and I needed an afternoon to relax soaking in the thermal baths of various temperatures and filled with different minerals. It was very, very relaxing, and an afternoon well spent (in my opinion). That evening, a friend, Joseph, from Pomona who is studying in London arrived, so he joined Nate and I for dinner and then we went wine tasting. Nate and I had a chuckle over the coincidence that we were being joined by someone with the same name as the missing De Winkle brother. Nate left on Friday - ending this chapter of the European adventures of (two of) the Brothers De Winkle.

However, Friday night I got to hang out with Joseph, and late that night, two more friends (John and Toby) from Pomona arrived in Budapest. Fortunately, John and Toby were staying with another Pomona student attending BSM this semester. I got hang out with them Saturday night, but unfortunately Joseph left Saturday afternoon. All in all, last week was a fun-filled week of hanging out with Nate and various friends from Pomona! It was also really nice to be in Budapest over the weekend for the first time in a month. I get to enjoy next weekend in Budapest as well before jetting off to the UK over Thanksgiving! In related news - how is it almost Thanksgiving?!? When did that happen?

In completely unrelated news, I am now legal to stay in Hungary for the rest of the semester - I got my residence permit today.